It's Just What Happens
by eatsleepreadwrite
Summary: It's Lily's seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With N.E.W.T.S. approaching and friends being, well, friends, she's not off to the best start. Not to mention there's that annoying bunch of misfits called the Marauders...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Halloween**

"Do you think that if I poke him hard enough he'll explode?" Lily looked at her friend who was stretched out on her bed, staring at a worn picture she held in her hands.

"What on EARTH would possess you to think of that?" Lily laughed, swinging her legs over the edge of her bed and made for her friend, tearing the photo out of Marlene Johnson's fair hands. "You are talking of blowing up poor old Zachary McKinnon?"

"Quite the opposite. I'm pretty sure I'm in love with the guy." Marlene looked up from twiddling her thumbs, very seriously and matter of fact. She couldn't hold a straight face for very long though, and the two girls had soon disappeared into a fit of out of control laughter. They were just calming down when Alison Yarn decided to enter the dormitory room wearing her Halloween costume which was a skimpy nurse outfit with pink bunny ears, and the pair fell back into hysterics.

"Oh dear. Ally, do you know what a shirt looks like?" Alison looked at Marlene with a look of utter disdain.

"I know what a shirt looks like," she replied scathingly, "but Halloween costumes are supposed to be scanty. Why, what are you guys wearing?" Now Alison just looked plain worried. Lily barely suppressed another fit of giggles when Marlene pulled her costume out of her trunk as it was the exact opposite of what Alison had gone for. It was a head to toe black one-piece complete which, thanks to a charm she had put on it, her look skeletal in dim lighting. Ally looked at it in sheer horror. "No, no! That's SCARY."

"And Halloween is what…sweet and cheerful?" Lily shook her head at the absurdity of her two friends. She went over to her trunk and pulled out a joker costume, coloured black and silver so she looked a bit Slytherin when she put it on.

"Nice costume." Marlene nodded approvingly. "Let's get dressed. I don't want to be late like last year." Marlene looked at Lily pointedly.

"Yes, well, sorry. I didn't want to dress up as a slutty devil! I wanted to come as a witch, but nooooo, that wasn't good enough for Alison Yarn, so I had to conjure up a pumpkin costume. I think I knocked over at least two hundred drinks that night." Alison grinned.

"I know. You would have been better off if you had just followed my advice."

"Whatever, let's get changed." Marlene and Lily pulled on their costumes, and after applying a bit of white make-up to both of their faces, they followed their friend down to the Great Hall. In Lily's second year, a few of the prefects had asked Dumbledore if they could hold a Halloween Ball, and thus the tradition was born. Five years on, the practice of the Ball was still going strong, and everyone was still enjoying dressing up and spending an evening not as themselves. All the teachers decided way back when the first Ball was held that they wouldn't attend, but would instead have a Halloween party of their own in the Headmaster's office. As an alternative of teacher supervision, the suits of armour were charmed to come alive and act in their place. To date, the charms had never gone wrong or malfunctioned, and to be honest, the teachers were probably much happier drinking pumpkin juice and eating ginger pumpkin shaped cookies by themselves. There was only one incident of the Ball getting slightly out of hand, which was when a certain James Potter and his cohort of misfits decided to start a food fight, but thanks to the suits of armour, it was sorted out promptly. The next Ball was almost cancelled, but Potter promised the professors that he wouldn't mess around at any of the following ones, and Lily was sure that this promise eased their consciences a fair bit. When they had entered the Great Hall, all three gasped in admiration of the decorations that had been put up. The candles were covered by carved pumpkins, black and orange streamers seemed to dominate the edges of the room, the sky was charmed to be a stormy night and the tables at the edges of the room were piled high with sugary goods that were probably all going to be consumed within the hour putting all the students on a sugar high. The ghosts floated around the hall, and real zombies and Inferi served up drinks in the far corner of the room. There were tombstones and torn-off limbs dotted around the room, blood and guts pasted across the walls, bones and ash scattered everywhere. Mist and fog created a thin layer of white across the floor and every so often a hand would rise from the floor, causing some unfortunate soul to scream loudly. Not that the screams were heard much as the loud music drowned out a good portion of the noise.

"Oi, Lily! I'm going off to see Graham Finch. I promised him a dance, so toodle-pip! See you later, 'kay?" Alison yelled back at her.

"Yeah, cool. Have fun with Graham." Lily shouted back. "What a crazy one, eh Marls?" she muttered to her friend, but when Lily turned to look at Marlene, she found an empty space. Scanning the room, she spotted Marlene talking to Zachary McKinnon, and Lily laughed to herself. "So much for my friends…" Lily sighed and walked to the edge of the room where she was handed a glass of Bloody Mary punch by a very nice zombie who she tried to have a conversation with, but he couldn't form a single word aside from 'uggggh' and she left after he drooled into his bowl of punch. Wandering around, she admired the decorations and smiled to herself when she saw people she knew. She spotted a couple dancing near the far corner of the room, so apparently Stephen Smith had given in to Lydia Thorn and gone to the dance with her which made Lily relieved more than anything. Lydia wouldn't stop nattering on about him all the way through Care of Magical Creatures last week. She saw Nina Walkinson dancing with Matt Kill which just looked plain odd as she was dressed as a bunny and he was dressed as a psychopath, axe in the head and all. Karen Edwards had come as a corpse bride and had her arms around Sirius Black who was dressed, rather ironically, as a policeman. After seeing Sirius, Lily looked around to try and find the other Marauders, but she could only see Remus dancing with a pink-haired girl Lily didn't know and Peter sitting by himself, talking to a ghost. Remus and Peter were by far the nicer two of the Marauders, and although Lily wouldn't have ordinarily gone up to one of the Fantastically Weird Four, he looked quite lonely. Pulling up a chair, she handed Peter a pumpkin pasty which she had picked up on her way over to him, and he smiled and thanked her, grateful for live company.

"Hey Peter! Why so lonely, huh?"

"The other guys are dancing and no-one wanted to dance with me. Doesn't matter though, I wanted a glass of punch anyway." She felt her chest ache a little for the poor boy next to her who clearly was at a loss without his friends. He was sat here, all alone and abandoned, talking to the undead.

"Well, don't drink from that guy's bowl. He drooled in it earlier." Lily turned to Peter and winked, and he laughed in return. "Want to dance?" she asked as the song changed into quite a creepy metal rock number.

"Yeah! Thanks for asking Lily. You're the best!" She laughed and dragged him into the middle of the room. They had danced quite crazily for a good portion of the song when a boy dressed as a vampire pulled her to the side of the room.

"Uh, Evans? What are you doing dancing with Peter?" Lily squinted and saw that it was James Potter. Trying not to screw her face up in disgust, she replied: "Well you lot abandoned him and he seemed very lonely, so I asked him to dance. Not that it is any of your stinking business, Potter!" She almost snarled the last bit and pushed past him to rejoin Peter.

"Actually, it is. He's my friend and I don't want you giving him the wrong idea." James had darted in front of her, blocking her path.

"I'm not, Potter, so don't you worry your screwed up head about it." Shoving him out of the way she almost ran up to Peter and continued dancing with him, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw James eyeing them from a distance. She rolled her eyes and danced until the end of the song had come. She and Peter returned to the chairs they had been sitting on, both a bit out of breath from moving around so much.

"Nice costume, by the way." He said approvingly, gesturing towards her joker attire.

"Back at you! I think that the ghost look was very underused this year."

"I completely agree. Everyone has come as a vampire or a skeleton it seems."

"I think you might be right. Except for the girls. Merlin knows what half of them were thinking when they put on their clothes."

"Probably not thinking at all." They both laughed and Lily nodded her agreement.

"Tell me about it. I think Alison must have had a brain freeze when she picked her outfit. It's ghastly!"

"It's not so bad. There are worse. Nina Walkinson isn't leaving much to the imagination."

"I know. It's gross. Bet her partner is loving it though."

"I guess. I dunno, I always thought that on Halloween you're supposed to wear scary outfits, not dressing in as little as possible."

"I totally agree! All my friends think I'm bonkers for thinking it's supposed to be scary. Oh, speak of the devils." Ally and Marly had pushed their way through the crowd and had made for Lily.

"C'mon Lily. Come and dance!" They each grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her out of her seat.

"Seems I'm being dragged away. If I go missing, you know who to blame!" She shouted at Peter.

"Too right. Have fun and thanks for talking to me."

"No problem. See you around." Lily was pulled into the colourful mass of people for a solid two minutes until they stopped at a small gap near the centre of the group.

"You know, as Head Girl you're supposed to set a good example to the younger ones. Halloween is about having fun, so have fun!" Ally screamed the last word and did a little dance, punching her fists in the air.

"I was having fun! Besides, what happened to your date?"

"Graham had to take his friend to Madame Pomfrey."

"Nice. I'm so glad to be your second choice!" Lily smiled teasingly.

"Not second. Friends and dates go in completely different choice columns. I can say with absolute certainty that you two are at the top of the former." They all laughed and continued to do their own dances to the music. At some point during the song, James Potter decided to appear again by Lily.

"Go away, Potter. No trouble tonight."

"Not trouble, more a thanks for talking to Pete. He's a lot happier now he's danced a bit, and Dallas Frank just asked him to dance so even better." Lily was shocked. A thanks from Potter? Better take it while it lasted.

"No problem."

"Good. Next time I need a favour done, I know who to ask!" He wiggled his eyebrows and Lily socked him hard in the shoulder. James Potter. What. An. Idiot. He danced away and rejoined a blond girl he had been dancing with. Her friends raised their eyebrows, but she waved their questions off and proceeded to walk and grab her glass of punch from the table. Who knew dancing was such thirsty work? After slurping her punch, she rejoined her friends and they danced for many more songs until they were all exhausted from screaming and jumping around, and decided to stumble up to their dormitory, occasionally tripping over each other's feet on their way up. Every single one of them collapsed on their respective beds and more or less passed out the instant their heads hit their pillows.

A sharp, shrill scream-like sound cut through Lily's dream. Groaning, she stretched out a hand and whacked her alarm clock to shut it up. She lay there for a few minutes, then after a few attempts, she managed to stagger over to the bathroom where she turned the tap on and splashed some cold water on her face. Ahhh, much better. With her mind a lot clearer, she ran back to her trunk to grab her wash stuff, towel and clothes before her other three roommates decided to wake up. The shower ran strong and warm, and Lily felt instantly better after stepping into the steamy cubicle. While she stood under the jet of water, she tried to recall the events of last night. She couldn't remember much of the later part of the night, but she remembered dancing with Peter and her friends dragging her away. Shaking her head as if to shake away last night's memories, she dried off and pulled on her Hogwarts uniform. When she re-entered her dorm room, Lily was not very surprised to find that every single other person in her room was still sound asleep. Ally was sleeping on her front, stretched out like a starfish, Marly was upside down on her bed and her head hung off the base of the bed and Lavinia Underwood who was their fourth roommate was curled up in a little ball at the top of her bed. All looked like they could be dead, with the exception of Marly who was snoring incredibly loudly. Lily reckoned she had two choices. She could go downstairs and have breakfast without them, or she could wake the others up and face probably death by flailing limbs. She shuddered, grabbed her bag and ran down to the Hall. Last time she'd woken Marly this early, she had whacked Lily in the face and caused a nice red lump to form on her cheek. There was no way she was going through that ordeal again. Besides, she had to run up to Dumbledore's Office before Potions anyway, so maybe not having her friends complaining and eating at the rate of a sleepy snail would be a good thing. Plonking herself down in the middle of the table, she served herself a couple of pancakes and slathered maple syrup over them until they were almost drowning in it. Half way through eating her pancakes, a black-haired boy sat down in front of her.

"Why, 'ello Evans!"

"Sirius Black. For your own safety, go away before I hex you." He chuckled and stole a forkful of pancake off her plate.

"No such luck, m'dear. I'm not that scared of you." Lily looked up from her plate an glared at him, imagining that lasers were being shot out of her eyes and were burning this infuriating guy to pieces. Most people would have run far, far away by now if Lily had given them her death glare, but he seemed unfazed.

"Still not scared." He glared right back at her and his eyes seemed to bore deep holes into her.

"Right, sure. What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Well, Miss Evans, in case you are feeling particularly stupid today, you might notice that this is our spot."

"Oh, what a shame, I feel so full of regret. Do let me bow down and worship you!" She said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"That would be great, thanks!" He smiled and flapped his hands as if gesturing for her to move. She sat there stubbornly and continued to munch on her breakfast. She wasn't going to move for Black and his stupid friends, she'd taken enough of their rubbish the last few years and she wasn't going to go back to being a target for their bullying this year. "Did you hear what I said, Evans?"

"No. All I hear is the whining of a hungry dog."

"Oh, that's nice. That wasn't a cheap shot at all!" Lily almost laughed. She hadn't said it like that intentionally, but she was glad she had. Finding out that the lot of them were illegal animagi last year had been a bit of a shock at first, but now she wasn't shocked at all. Of course there was Remus. She always felt bad for Remus, and that was probably a big reason why she got on with him more than any of the others; she didn't like to take shots at him, not that she would have anyway. Remus was a very nonchalant person and there was very little about him that she didn't like, except his taste in friends, of course.

"Well, you had it coming."

"Oh, sure. Anyway, shove over."

"No, not until I have finished my pancakes." When she saw his face, she said: "Oh, suck it up, Black. I'm not some bimbo you got off with last night. If you make a sad face, it's not going to make me want to move at all." His face went stony, a poorly hid show of anger.

"Fine. Have it your way." He got up and sat at the end of the table, his friends surprised at the change of seating followed him, and two of them smiled apologetically. Finishing her food, she started to walk towards the grand doors at the end of the hall, but she stopped at the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Potter," she poked him hard in the back, "don't forget about Dumbledore."

"Ow!" He cried, rubbing his back. "Merlin, any harder and my spine would have been pushed through my ribcage!" After a moment of silence, he replied: "Yeah, yeah. I'll be up there in a moment."

"Good, see you in a minute." Lily turned on her heel and walked out of the Hall and ascended the stairs to the Headmaster's office when she was stopped by an olive-skinned arm that was attached to a rather sleepy Alison.

"Merlin, Lily, why are you up so early?! It's Monday!" She grabbed Lily's arm and attempted to drag her down the stairs. "Come on. Let's get some breakfast." She slipped her arm out of Ally's limp grip.

"I already had some. I'll see you in Potions, okay? I gotta go see Dumbledore." Alison frowned, then seemed to understand and her face resembled someone who had eaten something sour.

"Alright then, Head Girl. I guess I'll have to eat alone…" She trailed off dramatically.

"Oh, get over it. I think I saw Lavinia walking into the Hall as I was leaving."

"Fine. Bye!" Ally smiled and charged down the marble stairs to the Hall. Lily continued on her journey up the moving staircases to the Headmaster's office, which happened to be the very top room in the school, which meant more walking. Not great for first thing on a Monday morning. When she had finally reached the giant gargoyle that stood guard to Dumbledore's office, she muttered the password and climbed the last few steps up to the door. She raised her hand to knock, but some shouting that was reverberating out of the room stopped her from knocking.

"Look, Dumbledore, Magic for All are getting some real abuse at the moment. Only yesterday, one of their members was murdered and her mangled body was dismembered to write Lord Voldemort on the ground. Does this sound like a safe group for your students to be involved in?"

"Minister, I understand your concern, but the students have minds of their own. The students who are involved with MA are old enough to think for themselves. I am not someone who dictates the actions of a free wizard."

"You're getting soft. You need to take action and force those children to leave the group. I've gotten far too many complaints about children participating in rebellious activities, and if one of them dies, it's me the public hold responsible. So, for once, do the right thing and get them out."

"Sorry, Minister, but I can't do that. Before you say any more, I need to let my Head Girl into my office." She heard heavy footsteps getting louder and she knocked quickly to hide the fact that she'd just been eavesdropping. The heavy, oak door swung wide revealing Dumbledore with a worn look on his face and the Minister of Magic huffing and he immediately stepped into the fireplace and flooed out of the office. "Hello, Miss Evans. Do come in. Sorry about your wait, but the Minister-"

"It's fine, Professor. I don't mind."

"Good, then take a seat." He gestured to a large comfy chair in front of his desk. She had barely sat down when she heard a knock on the door. Dumbledore started to get up, but she leapt up and ran to the door to let Potter in. James walked in straight away, greeted the Headmaster and sat down in the other seat. She closed the door hurriedly and sat down once again.

"Mr Potter, Miss Evans, I have bad news and boring admin. Which would you prefer to do first?"

"The news first please, Sir." Potter spoke up quickly, shooting a glance a Lily who didn't react.

"I know you both are members of the MA and so are some of your friends. The Minister has ordered me to persuade you to relinquish your membership to the society. I do not agree, but one doesn't disobey the Minister." At this point he almost smiled, but the news stopped a smile from occurring.

"Sorry, Professor, but I personally can't give up on the MA. My parents are members and wouldn't think that the Minister really understands the cause, no disrespect intended." Potter almost looked angry at the suggestion that he give up. Rightly so.

"Me neither, Sir. They're defending people like me, and I don't think it's right that I take to the sidelines and watch others defend me. That would be me breaking a promise which I am not going to do." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled brightly.

"Well, I have tried. If you can talk to your friends, that would be a great help, but I don't blame you at all for sticking to your guns. Take warning though, the MA have gotten a lot more attacks recently, so be cautious."

"Of course, Professor."

"Okay, then onto admin. The detention cards need to be sorted as soon as possible, as do the house points. I also need you two to organise a sign-up sheet for those in the year below who wish to sign up for Apparition. Patrols need to be sorted soon, too. Maybe hold a Prefect meeting to organise these?" Dumbledore read down the piece of paper he was holding, and decided that was it for the admin, crumpled the paper and tossed it into the bin.

"Sure, Professor. Lily and I can do the cards and points sometime this week and the sheet will be up by lunch-time. We'll find a free evening to have a meeting and sort the patrols soon." Lily was surprised at how much better Potter had gotten since being chosen for Head Boy. The transformation was insane.

"Excellent. Well," he got up, "that's all. You'd better get to classes, I don't want you to be late."

"Thanks, Sir. Have a good day!" Lily said as they exited the room. The door shut behind them and the two Heads started to walk down to the dungeons for Potions. After a few moments of silence, she broke it.

"What days don't you have Quidditch?" He turned and looked at her confused.

"Oh, I'm not free Mondays, Thursdays or Sunday mornings. What about you?"

"Uh, I can do Tuesdays. That any good?"

"Yeah. Okay, well why don't we hold a meeting on Wednesday after school to do patrols? If so, do you want to do points and detentions after dinner tomorrow?"

"Yup, that's fine. Say, eight in the dungeons?"

"Sure. See you tomorrow Lily." Even more shocked at his use of her first name than the fact that he was being civil, she choked slightly. What was she supposed to say back?

"Ummm, okay. Bye J…otter?" Potter laughed a clear laugh and pushed the door to the classroom open. Lily followed quickly, her face burning slightly. Witty retorts she was full of, but civil replies to James Potter? No such luck. Slughorn acknowledged their entrance and gestured for them to sit down. Lily sat down in the spare seat next to Marlene and listened to Slughorn explain the potion Drink of Despair. Lily had already brewed it before, so she and Marly sped through it without any hiccups and finished well on time with a good potion. When they had finished brewing it, Slughorn walked round, talking to individual pairs. Since they were near the back of the classroom, Lily knew it would be a while until he got over to them.

"Marly?"

"Yeah?" Marlene had been trying to have a quick nap, so she sounded a bit irritated at being awoken.

"Dumbledore's had some trouble with the Minister about us being part of the MA. The Minister wants us all to quit." Marlene sat up bolt upright.

"Hell no! I'm not going to let everyone else get all the glory!" Lily smiled at her friend's anger at the very notion of quitting. Marlene was a Gryffindor through and through, headstrong and brave to the core.

"Good. I didn't think you'd be up for quitting."

"You know me. I only quit at stuff that doesn't matter, like school." She winked then closed her eyes and went back to sleep. Slughorn eventually came over to look at their potion and Marly was forced to open her eyes.

"My, my, Miss Evans! What a splendid potion, possibly the best I've seen today. Miss Johnson?" Marly looked up. "Well done to you too. You are quite the team." He wandered off after that and Lily began to pack away the ingredients.

"Students!" Slughorn clapped loudly to get everyone's attention. "Because the Drink of Despair causes such extensive pain, it is for safety reasons that you do not keep the potion, so please can you place your brews on my desk? Carefully!" He added watching Benjy Fenwick almost drop his on his own foot. A few people sniggered and walked over to Slughorn's desk after discarding used ingredients and washing up cauldrons. Lily had packed away almost everything, so she grasped the potion firmly at the top of the vial and began to walk towards Slughorn. Suddenly a push came from behind her that caused her to trip on her own feet and fall over forwards, smashing the vial beneath her. Lily screamed at the burning pain and rolled over so she was lying on her back, curling up as she did. The pain was unbearable, burning on her skin like it was on fire. She could see small droplets of it that formed a dotted pattern on her arm, and when she tried to shake it off, they didn't move but stayed, like they were stuck. She looked around wildly and saw various students panicking and running around and when she saw the person behind her, she saw Sirius Black. Black, of course it was Black, always running around, pushing people out the way without a care. He looked horrified and after putting his own potion on the table, began to levitate bits of glass away from her. After another two minutes of intense pain, her vision began to blacken at the edges and the last thing she saw before she passed out was a black-haired boy dragging a concerned Madame Pomfrey behind him.

_N.B. This is a first draft and will probably get changed later, so sorry if there are any gaping errors! Feel free to review! ;)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2  
**

**Rosier and Snape**_  
_

_What happened before: Lily is in potions when she falls over, smashing her vial of Drink of Despair causing her intense pain. She looks up and sees Sirius Black behind her and before she passes out she sees a boy dragging Madame Pomfrey to her. _

Lily woke up in a clean white bed, complete with crisply ironed sheets and a very soft pillow. Blinking a few times, she began to see shapes appearing around her: people hurrying about, beds neatly made, bottles of skelegro amongst other nasty potions and cabinets of dusty bottles. Looking down at herself, she saw bandages covering every inch of her and after a moment's contemplation, she figured she looked like a very clean mummy. Only after a few minutes of looking around did she spot two familiar figures slumped in the chairs next to the bed. After a few shakes and bashes on the arms, they woke up.

"Lily! Thank Merlin you're alright!" Marlene and Alison both rushed over to the bed where they continued to ask her questions.

"What happened? One minute I'm having a great nap and the next you're on the floor screaming!"

"How did you trip this time? You've been so much better about picking up your feet!"

"I saw you look at Black after you got that potion all over you. What's that all about?"

"How are your arms? Sore?"

"Guys, guys! Slow down!" Lily tried to raise her hands to motion slowing down, but her limbs didn't feel like co-operating much. "I have a few questions first. Number one, how long have I been here?" Alison answered first.

"You slept here overnight, if that helps. I think it's about lunch-time now."

Great, just great. She had missed all of Monday's lessons as well as a good portion of Tuesday's. That would be fun to catch up.

"Two, what did Madame Pomfrey say about whatever it is that happened to me?"

"We didn't hear much as she is a complete devil when it comes to visiting and checking up on you, but from what I can gather, you're not too bad as you didn't drink the potion which would have seriously screwed you up. Only touching it must have made your skin burn like crazy, but no permanent damage. You're just your normal, clumsy, dorky self!" Marly smiled and gave her two thumbs up. Lily rolled her eyes.

"What I meant was: when can I leave?"

"You can leave today, but not until dinner time." Lily started to protest, but Marly held her hands up. "Look, Lily, we tried to barter with Madame Eat-Me-Alive over there, but she told us if we didn't stop arguing with her, she was going to make you stay an extra day."

"Fine, fine. Can you at least bring in catch up work?" Ally and Marly looked at each other. Lily recognised their guilty looks immediately. "You didn't grab my work, did you?"

"I'm sorry Lils! We were very distracted, because as you may have noticed, our best friend is in the hospital!" Marly was getting louder and louder with every word.

"It's not my fault stupid Sirius Black decided to shove me, is it?" Lily felt herself starting to get a bit irritated at her friends, who acted like it was all her fault.

"Guys, stop shouting or Madame Pomfrey is going to throw us out." Alison looked pointedly at Marly. Not for the first time, Lily was grateful Alison was there; she always was the one to stop arguments blowing up in their faces.

"I'm not yelling, I'm talking at a very normal pitch." Marly said, eyeing Pomfrey as she attended to a boy with a bulging eye on the other side of the hospital. She had looked up, glaring at the group of them disapprovingly, but the boy's eye burst some pus so she seemingly forgot about them.

"Whatever. Anyway, can you guys collect for me for the remaining lessons then?"

"Sure. We've got History of Magic and Defence together, and I think that's the rest of the lessons we have this afternoon…" She pulled out her timetable to check that was correct, whilst at the same time loosening a folded slip of paper from her bag, which tumbled to the floor. Lily, spotting that it had fallen out, bent over the edge of her bed and picked it up, nearly falling off in the process. On the front, her name was scrawled in an untidy font.

"What's this?" She held up the paper for Alison to see, a confused look on her face.

"Oh yeah, after James brought Madame Pomfrey to the Dungeons, he stayed here for like an HOUR before Dragon-Mouth ordered him to his lessons. He gave me this note to give to you." Lily's eyebrows rose in surprise. What was Potter doing writing her a note? It was very unlike him to do something so polite, civil and friendly. Well, civil for him anyway. One couldn't expect too much from James Potter. A 'please' or 'thank you' was already pushing it.

Lily Evans,

I came back earlier. I was wondering if I could come and see how you were doing. I just wanted to check you were okay. See you later for house points and detention cards.

James Potter James

Wasn't it lovely he was so articulate? Lily mentally rolled her eyes at his indecision and crumpled it up, stuffing it in her bag whose brown strap was slung over the wrought iron headboard. Her two friends were looking at her eagerly, eyes as wide as teacups.

"What?" They looked at her some more. "What?! What do you want? And please, for Merlin's sake, stop with the eyes!" She hid their Bambi eyes with her cotton hands. Marly shook it off immediately, but Alison seemed glad for a way to keep her head up without trying herself.

"We want to know what it says." The amount of concentration put into trying to will Lily into telling was almost comical – Marly's face was screwed up in a tight, scrunched up shape, but her eyes remained wide.

"It's not important, guys. What is important is my class work." She looked pointedly at the pair.

"Jeez, Lily. Stop worrying about classes for a moment and be a teenage girl. Since you seem to be new at this, let me clue you in. We thrive on gossip, and a nice juicy chunk is sitting in your bag." Alison said, very matter-of-factly. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Marly eyeing the bag that lay just a few metres away.

"It's not interesting, trust me. Just Heads stuff."

"Lily Evans, you tell me right now or I shall get Pomfrey to drug you again so we can nick it. Ally was so good at not peeking up until now, so make her loyalty worth it." Marly said with a dangerous edge in her voice, but a barely concealed smirk on her face.

"Oh my MERLIN you guys are weird!" She reached over and grabbed the crumpled bit of paper. "Here!" She stuck out the note to her friends who pored over it like it was the source of their life. Psh. Friends.

"Well, this is interesting…" Alison murmured as she continued to look at it. After the fourth minute of looking at it, Lily gave up and grabbed it back. They both yelled in protest, but after a loud 'SHHHH!' from Pomfrey, they were subdued to screamed whispers.

"You have been looking at it for FOUR minutes. It does not take four minutes to read eleven words."

"Maybe not to you, you seem to read at the speed of light, but us, we take a while."

"Plus we like to read the subtext which you clearly do not get." Marly whispered, and Alison gave her a knowing look. Lily positively hated that look.

"Then, by all means, do share your insights, which, are probably looking way too much into things." Lily sighed and gave them back the paper. She might as well let them have their fun or she wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Okay, so, obviously the crossings out indicate indecision, a key writing habit that guys who like a girl have." Alison gestured to the various crossings out.

"Uh, no. We are not off to a good start."

"We are too. Look at his varied use of forenames and surnames. This could mean that he's called you by his first name, but not vice-versa, and could also mean that he wants to be more friendly with you as he wrote the first names first." Marly was the one this time to point out the crazy and complicated things that her friends seemed to pick out from virtually nothing.

"No, it means he wasn't focussing when he was writing. Lots of crossings out are clear examples of someone who is doing something else and is scribbling while they talk, for example." Marly and Alison tried to formulate a reason why that was not the case, but came up with nothing. Lily grinned in victory.

"You have just been lawyered, my dears. Next time, think it through more carefully." They both jumped up in dissent, but Lily waved them back down. "Later guys. I've had enough of your wonderfully inaccurate comments for the time being. Let me rest up so I can get going when I'm set free from this cage of white linen and disinfectant." Her friends, unwillingly, gave up on their quest to introduce Lily to all things inane, and returned the note.

"Here. I hope you're happy." Marly glared at Lily, but bent down to give her a suffocating hug. "Get better soon, Lily, or I may have to permanently chain you to a safety room."

"Safety room?"

"A room which has walls made entirely of bubble wrap. Duh!" Shaking her head at Lily's supposedly silly question, she grabbed her bag and began to walk to the doors.

"Bye, Lils. We might not be able to make it back before dinner as Slughorn has the entire class cleaning the dungeons because of yesterday, but we'll see you at dinner, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, see you guys later!" A quick hug from Ally and then they were both gone. It was surprising how much quieter the Wing was when her friends weren't there. The silence seems to grow and expand, filling up the Wing and causing a sudden drowsiness to overcome Lily. Looking over at the nurse, she saw that a spell had been cast, causing Lily to curse not being aware enough to see the sleeping spell coming, whilst lying her head down on the soft pillow and snoring her troubles away.

A sharp _snip_ sound caused Lily to awake with a start. It was dark outside, which was expected as winter was coming, but nevertheless caused Lily to panic for a moment. The snipping came from Pomfrey's wand cutting some of the bandages from her legs.

"Miss Evans! I could have stabbed you!"

"But you didn't!" Lily tried a winning smile, but it came out desperate. Pomfrey frowned.

"Why do you want to get out of here so badly? Got a date?" Lily turned red. Madame Pomfrey almost smirked.

"No, I have work to do."

"You know, Miss Evans, I have never met someone who was quite a belligerent and stubborn about work as you are. Anyone would think it's your lifeline."

"Who knows, maybe it is." Pomfrey finished cutting the bandages off her legs in under a minute. Lily stared at her pale legs for a moment, confused by their marbled appearance. As if reading her mind, Madame Pomfrey answered.

"Your skin is a bit marred because of the potion burns. They should disappear soon if you take this," she held up a vibrant green bottle, "regularly, unless you want another night here to fix that sooner…" Lily almost screamed her opposition at that notion.

"No, please, thanks. Not another night."

"Very well. Your robes are there." She pointed to a neat pile of clothes. "You can change in the bathroom at the end of the Wing. Then you are free to go." Lily almost wept with joy. It had been such a boring day and she couldn't wait to escape the monotony of sitting doing nothing.

"Thanks! Thanks for fixing me up!" Lily leapt out of bed, only to stumble for a moment on her throbbing legs. After a bit of jiggling around, they felt a bit better and she ran off to get changed.

Lily had been down to dinner, but had found the Hall incredibly empty, not a Gryffindor in sight. There had been a couple of second-year Ravenclaws and several Hufflepuffs, but no-one she knew. She had barely finished her dessert when she looked at the grand clock she called her watch and found it was already ten past eight. Remembering her promise to do Heads chores, she pushed back the bench and sprinted out of the Hall to the Dungeons. Veering round the corner, she ran headfirst into a stone wall. After a bit of cursing and rubbing her head, she began to stagger towards the stairs, but heard raised voices from the Dungeons that caught her ear.

"…her own fault. Bloody Mudblood didn't seem to care that the Dark Lord could kill her and that stupid group she belongs to in an instant."

"You shouldn't have knocked her down, Rosier." She recognised that voice. Who could forget the slow drawl of Severus Snape?

"She asked for it. And besides, I didn't directly push her over."

"Shoving Black was pretty much a direct hit." Black? He shoved Black? So Sirius hadn't pushed her over. Lily almost felt guilty for blaming Sirius when it was all Evan Rosier's fault. He was an unhinged kid, following the Dark Arts like a religion, worshipping Voldemort to the point of no return.

"Was not. I thought she might trip up at most, but who knew she had such an unstable head on her spindly little legs?"

"Watch it, Evan. You shoved Black pretty hard and she's smaller than most guys here." She felt her heart leap at Sev's, admittedly poor, defence of her. It was nice to know he made an attempt to care.

"What does it matter to you? You promised Him that you wouldn't consort with her anymore, let alone care for her. She's a filthy Mudblood, Snape, she's worth as much as a Muggle tramp." Lily felt her heart drop and a lump rise in her throat.

"She's not a Muggle tramp, you-"

"What's going on here?" Another unmistakable voice. James Potter had joined the party. A weird, psychotic, mind-boggling little party. Well this was going to be awkward.

"Mind your own business, Potter." Snape's tone had gone from cold to angry and hissing. Lily could almost imagine the snake biting the lion in the foot.

"I don't care about you two having a lovers spat, but I do care that Lily hasn't turned up yet and you two, who I can't say have the best reputations, are coincidentally standing here, right where we were supposed to meet."

"Since when is it Lily?" Sev almost sounded hurt.

"Since none of your bloody business. Now move so I can go find her."

"Fat chance of that happening. Date or no date, Mudblood Evans isn't coming anywhere near my pure blood." Rosier answered that time. There was an echoing silence. That wasn't good. That was never good. Potter and Snape were never silent around each other. Lily rounded the corner and sprinted down the stairs, only to see James throwing a well-aimed punch at Rosier's nose. She ran down the last few steps and grabbed James by the waist, dragging him away from the two Slytherins. Still struggling, he didn't even seem to have realised who it was who was hauling him away, only that he was now too far away to punch them both. Severus leant over and helped Rosier up, who was screaming obscenities at James who had finally stopped struggling when he saw a familiar flash of red hair.

"Lily?"

"No, James, its Batman."

"Seriously? Hey Batman! You're a lot more attractive than in the comics…" James smiled widely, winking as he did. Lily almost smiled as well, until she was reminded of the situation when Rosier began screaming again.

"Who let that filthy creature down here? Dirty, mangy, polluted girl!" He dusted off his robes as if he was worried Lily had gotten some of her muddy blood on him. "How dare you come to this classroom? How dare you touch a Pureblood?" He was on a roll, and Sev trying to drag him away wasn't helping. "You sick, inhuman bitch! Get away from those who are true wizards! Get your disgusting mitts off of us wizards!" He lumbered over to her, his face inches from hers. James tried to get between them, but Rosier grabbed him and shoved him against the wall, causing him to hit his head and fall to the ground.

"Do everyone a favour and go back to the hole you call a home and kill yourself." She could see the saliva dripping off his torn lip, his bloodshot eyes boring into hers. The lump in her throat threatened to slip out, but she held her ground, biting back retorts in an attempt to not anger him further.

They stood there for a whole two seconds, until Severus managed to tear Rosier away. The pair stalked off, Severus snatching a glance of Lily bent over a limp James Potter as they did.

"Potter. Potter!" Lily shook him hard, but got no response. "Bloody HELL, JAMES POTTER WAKE UP NOW!" Lily slapped him hard around the face. She wished it didn't feel so good, but after building up every horrible thing he'd ever said inside of her and packing it into one great slap, it felt, in a word, satisfactory. James sat up quickly, bashing his head against Lily's who was leaning over his previously dead-looking body.

"Holy mother of-" He seemed to remember where he was at this point in his sentence. "-sunshine and rainbows. What did you do to me?" James sat there rubbing his cheek which now had a nice red welt on the side. Lily sat next to him, rubbing her head for the second time in the last five minutes.

"Nothing! I needed to wake you up, that's all. You know, to check you aren't dead."

"Well, goody, goody, I'm not dead." He winced when he rubbed his cheek again. "Alright, well, help me up." He stuck out his hands for Lily to grab, which she did. They walked to the dungeons in silence, both mulling over the events of the previous few minutes. James ran forward and pulled open the door, keeping it open for Lily to walk through, just like a real gentleman. Lily frowned slightly at James's politeness, but walked on past nevertheless. Within a few minutes, they had started work on the detention cards. There was a very noticeable silence that Lily felt she needed to break.

"Shall we split these into ones that need to be done, and ones that don't?"

"Are you okay?" James said hurriedly, as if he'd been thinking about asking it, but wasn't sure if he should. After asking it, he went back to shuffling the cards noisily.

"Yeah," Lily said slowly, "you?"

"Fine. My head and face hurt a bit," he smiled at her, a twinkle in his eye, "but I think that was pretty predictable." He turned around and she saw a bit of blood matted into his thick black hair. She dodged through the table and inspected his head, which caused much protesting from James.

"Man! Rosier threw you hard! You should get that checked out by Pomfrey." She stood there for a minute, staring at the back of his head, until he coughed uncomfortable and shuffled away.

"Nah, it's okay. It's just skin deep." She walked back to her set of cards and continued sorting them. James Potter, James Potter, James Potter… How many detentions had this boy had?!

"Shall we have a completely separate box for Potter detentions?" Lily, said, chuckling.

"Nah. I think we'll need a few hundred between me and the rest of the Marauders." He smiled back, laughing with her. "Merlin knows we have enough. Between stupid pranks and accidents, the teachers aren't so stingy with the detentions." Lily was stunned. There she was, sure that Potter couldn't ever admit he did stupid, reckless things, but here he was, more or less admitting it.

"True. But people can always reform right? Who knows, Dumbledore clearly picked you for Head Boy for some reason. Or maybe he just lost his mind for a moment." She said, baiting him into saying something malicious to spite her. She knew that he was going to lose his gentleman's touch any moment anyway. What was the point of getting all chummy with a boy who firstly, she hated, and secondly, wasn't really himself?

"Oi!" He shouted, faking an offended look and bumping her shoulder, still smiling. Now Lily was even more taken aback. What had happened to the callous, vicious, sadistic bully that she knew to be James Potter?


End file.
